University Bonus Points

Understanding university bonus point schemes will help you plan out what ATAR you will need to get to be accepted into the courses of your choice.

What are Universtiy Bonus Points? Bonus points are points that universities offer and take into consideration as an addition to your ATAR when they calculate your selection rank for entrance to a course. These bonus points mean your selection rank for a particular course is increased. Bonus points can be acquired for taking certain subjects at school.

Some universities offer bonus points for taking extra-curricular courses or excelling in competitions. Many universities including UNSW, University of Sydney, Macquarie University and UTS offer up to five bonus points for entry into their courses.

To put it simply, your Selection rank = ATAR + bonus points. So if you had an ATAR of 95 and 2 bonus points, you would gain entry into a course that has a cut-off of 97. That means you would be treated the same as someone who received an ATAR of 97!

There’s a catch though. You won’t receive bonus points for some courses such as Law, Medicine or Commerce but there are plenty of courses you could be eligible to score some bonus points including Business, Engineering, International Studies, Arts and many more.

Bonus points schemes for each university and course differ, so check out the information from participating universities.

It’s important to have access to this information as soon as possible so you can plan ahead to maximise your chance of university entrance.

Because we care, we’ve included links to relevant information from universities to save you time. So you can spend more time studying!

Want to Take Your ATAR to the Next Level?

Read our Beginner’s Guide to ATAR and Scaling! This comprehensive Guide will give you detailed explanations about how ATAR is calculated, how scaling works, and the things you can do to optimise your ATAR to get into the uni course of your dreams.

Written by Matrix Education

Matrix is Sydney's No.1 High School Tuition provider. Come read our blog regularly for study hacks, subject breakdowns, and all the other academic insights you need.